Third Space, a Vancouver real estate management, investment and development company, has announced ambitious short- and long-term decarbonization targets in conjunction with the release of its Net Zero Transition Plan.

The company intends to cut operational and team emissions from its properties by 55 per cent and reduce embodied carbon by over 30 per cent by 2030 with an ultimate goal of achieving net-zero by 2050.

Not only will all new Third Space projects and buildings be voluntarily zero-carbon operations and 100 per cent electrified from the outset, but all properties will be entirely submetered for heating, cooling, hot and cold water, and electricity.

The Net Zero Transition Plan provides extensive analysis of the company's work across its commercial real estate portfolio and how it intends to hit its 2030 emission reduction goals as a first milestone toward becoming fully decarbonized by 2050.

Third Space has also decided to make its Net Zero Transition Plan public with the goal of inspiring and enabling real estate developers and all companies committed to sustainability to find the "best pathway" to net-zero.

According to Third Space, Vancouver is "facing both a housing and a climate crisis". Raging fires in British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada during 2024 were primarily responsible for over $7 billion in insured losses due to similar natural disasters and climate change-related extreme weather events.

Although Vancouver has earned a reputation as a metropolitan trailblazer owing to its panoply of innovative low-carbon design and engineering projects, buildings still account for 57 per cent of the city's total emissions.

Billing itself as "a triple bottom line real estate investment, development and management company," Third Space is intent on decarbonizing its share of the built environment that includes 20 properties currently under management, construction and development.

Three phases to roadmap

The Net Zero Transition Plan provides a comprehensive framework aimed at reducing carbon emissions in alignment with Vancouver's ambition to become the greenest city in the world.

Third Space director of net-zero and planet impact Leo Glaser spearheaded the effort to lay out a data-driven, science-based roadmap and set of strategies in collaboration with third-party specialists and engineers.

"The first phase in this process involved the heavy lifting of collecting all the building-specific data related to energy consumption," Glaser said in an interview with Sustainable Biz Canada. "Then we engaged third-party engineering specialists and consultants who audited the buildings who went through the entire mechanical system, checked on the envelope, checked on the roof, the windows, and did a complete audit on every single equipment piece in our buildings."

"On the basis of this huge data set we were able to onboard a specific energy and carbon management tool that allows us to track the performance of the buildings."

Phase 2 of the plan set about establishing the parameters for how far Third Space could proceed with not only establishing new guidelines for projects under construction or in development, but also for existing tenant-controlled buildings that are the hardest to abate.

"We wanted to push ourselves to see how much we can achieve. We studied the data from the decarbonization audits and went about determining what needs to be replaced in our existing buildings in the coming years, by 2030, and beyond," Glaser, who formerly worked in the field of submetering in his native Germany, explained.

"We then aligned these emissions-reduction projects with equipment replacement schedules. Instead of simply replacing a gas-fired boiler with another gas-fired boiler, we wanted to figure out how we can electrify our buildings and eliminate all carbon emissions."

The third and final stage of the plan is the "Project Installation Phase", whereby Third Space carries out a detailed budgetary analysis of their building projects.

Tenant engagement is key

In its tenant-controlled buildings, Third Space is embarking on an active engagement strategy to ensure clients understand the long-term cost savings from converting to heat pump systems and other electrification-related measures. 

"We are collaborating with our tenants to identity these opportunities . . . we are able to tweak every single system that is running the building and make it as efficient as possible," Glaser said.

"As equipment starts getting to the end of its lifetime at these buildings, we provide electrification alternatives such as replacing gas-fired boilers with heat pumps which are 400 per cent more efficient.

"Taking into consideration financial incentives, carbon taxes and future penalties recently introduced by the City of Vancouver, we can make the possible business case for electrification where you're looking at a 12- to 15-year payback for a heat pump system."

Planet Pillar program

Earlier this year, Third Space unveiled its Planet Pillar initiative that encompasses twin strategies of decarbonizing its building portfolio while sharing knowledge and resources with other companies and stakeholders in the industry.

"Vancouver is definitely at the forefront of smart building construction and it has put forward a strong plan to become the greenest city in the world - our Planet Pillar values align with that."

Third Space is developing "live data dashboards" that will rely on advanced submetering systems to display real-time metrics that allow tenants to evaluate building performance, adjust their energy consumption and assess sustainability progress accordingly.

"These dashboards will be installed in all our new buildings and marks another important step towards achieving our decarbonization goals," Glaser said.

"This is what we care about. We want to communicate that message to our tenants . . . and get people talking about reducing emissions, becoming more energy efficient, and maybe encourage others to join the journey, too."